Resta, Sutil return without points from British GP

A pit-stop goof-up pushed Paul di Resta to a poor 15th place finish while Adrian Sutil came 11th as Force India returned without points from the British Grand Prix despite good positions on the grid, here on Sunday.

After starting at a season-best sixth place on the grid, Resta was in points contention till the half-way mark in the 52-lap race, but a messy second pit stop in lap 25 compromised his home race.

It was a disastrous stop. Resta had come for a tyre change but the pit crew brought the Scott his teammate Adrian Sutil's tyres. By the time the error was realised and rectified, Resta dropped to 16th from a good seventh.

Lewis Hamilton had overtaken the sixth place from di Resta in the opening lap itself.

Sutil had a good race after starting 11th on the grid as he had moved to eighth position behind di Resta and maintained that even after the first pit stop.

He had dropped to 11th but managed to get to ninth by lap 34 but eventually finished outside the points bracket.

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso won the race while defending champion Sebastain Vettel finished second, followed by his Red Bull teammate Mark Webber, who started from pole.

Sutil said it was disappointing to come away empty-handed after making a promising start to the race.

"My start was okay and things looked good in the first few laps. The conditions were tricky, with a lot of damp areas in the second sector, but I felt quite confident and was able to run in the points.

"I think we made the right decision with the strategy to stop three times, but in the end I don't think we had the pace to hold on for points today," said Sutil.

Resta blamed the pit-stop goof-up for his poor showing in front of the home crowd.

"It's extremely disappointing to end my first British Grand Prix in P15. It's a frustrating race," said Resta.

"I had a good first part of the race; we seemed quite competitive and I was able to hold on to Jenson (Button) as I concentrated on looking after my intermediate tyres. I think we made the switch to dry tyres at the right moment and we were running well.

"Then I got a call to come into the pits again, but when I got there the team were expecting Adrian (Sutil), so there was obviously some confusion. It cost me quite a lot of time because the boys had to run back in the garage and fetch my tyres. That cost us about 25 seconds, which pretty much ended my chances. But I think we should stay positive because the car has shown well this weekend and that gives me confidence going into the second part of the season," he added.

Vijay Mallya, Chairman and Team Principal said, "Today simply was not our day. Things started to go wrong when we made a serious error on the pit wall. It's clear we need to regroup and come back stronger in Germany so that we can convert the pace of the car into points."